The present invention generally involves a process for producing a value-added fruit product from another, less valuable and less useful, starting fruit or fruit material and the products produced by the processes.
Occasionally, fruits are processed for incorporation into base products such as fruit flavored, fruit based, or fruit containing edible products. Such products include candies, ice creams, fruitcakes, jams, jellies, etc. One of the most common processing techniques for converting fruits into such base products begins with subjecting the fruit, such as a cherry, to a brine solution. Brine solutions typically include water that is saturated or strongly impregnated with calcium salt and sulfur dioxide. The fruit is generally placed in a brine solution to steep for a period of time. Brined fruit, such as cherries, are inexpensive and generally in plentiful supply, but are generally not useful for the same applications as are sweetened, dried red tart cherries or black cherry products.
Therefore, a need exists for a simple and economical process for converting fruits, in particular, brined cherries, into other more value-added fruit products such as red tart cherry-like products and stabilized black cherry-like products where the converted products are pleasant tasting and safe for human or animal consumption.
Previous processes attempting to achieve this result are time consuming and cumbersome and do not offer the full functionality achieved by the processes of the present invention. The traditional processes that attempt to manufacture value-added products using brined base products usually take several weeks, and the resulting products may contain high levels of sulfur.